ITX motherboards are not on the mind of
most consumers when they want to build their new computer system or
upgrade their existing system. Many of us are into building up bulky
systems for intense gaming, multitasking, and or video editing as well.
However, these motherboards are great for small businesses and home
office computers that are geared towards email, Microsoft office, and
other applications. These are also great for beginning computer
enthusiasts that want to build their own computer since you won’t need a
lot of money to build a system around ITX motherboards. They are
compact, affordable, and go great with your leftover computer components
and a small case. The ITX motherboard I will be reviewing today is the
ZOTAC M880G-ITX motherboard and it looks like it will be a great product
that can definitely meet the needs of the consumers willing to buy it.
Before I get to the details of the motherboard and its specs, let’s look
inside and see what this product from ZOTAC has to offer.
Contents
- M880G-ITX User’s Manual
- M880G-ITX Installation CD
- M880G-ITX Quick Installation Guide
- M880G-ITX Warranty
- 2 x SATA 6.0 Gb/s cable
- DVI to VGA Adapter
- 2 x Wifi Antenna
As you can see from the pictures the
motherboard is pretty small and sleek. The color scheme isn’t that great
in my opinion since the SATA ports are red and the memory slots are
yellow. And the overall motherboard is black but I doubt many people
that buy this product will be looking it after they install it. Most of
them will probably never see it again after they install it since they
will be using it for their home offices or small businesses. However, a
great addition about this product already is that it comes with its own
processor and heatsink/cpu fan mounted as well. It helps in terms of
overall cost when consumers factor in prices for the other computer
components.
We can see that they have added many
SATA ports; up to 6 SATA Gb/s connections are allowed which will be
great since many people now are buying SSDs. And there is also two slots
of dual channel DDR3-800 memory on the side. It’s not much but with
this kind of motherboard all it would need is like 4 GB and it should be
good to go with Windows 7. And with ITX motherboards you can see there
is a 20 pin motherboard connector and a 4 pin power connector. Since
these motherboards are much smaller than the ones we are used to buying
they don’t need an 8 pin power connector.
Specifications
- AMD M880G (RS880m) chipset
- AMD Turion II Neo K625 Processor (1.5 GHz, dual-core)
- Hyper Transport 3.0 technology
- ATI Radeon HD 4200 series
- ATI Avivo HD technology
- Microsoft DirectX 10.1 compatible
- Dual Channel DDR3-800
- 2 DIMM slots up to 8GB of memory
- 1 HDMI & DVI-I outputs
- 6 SATA 6.0 Gb/s w/Raid 0,1, 0+1
- 2 USB 3.0 ports
- 4 USB 2.0 ports
- 6 Channel High-Definition Audio
- 802.11n Wifi
- Gigabit LAN
- Mini-ITX form factor
There are many heatsinks and I can tell
that this motherboard will stay pretty cool even in a compact case since
the heatsinks will dissipate the hot air off the mainboard and let the
fans push it out of the system. On the side of the motherboard we can
see the rear I/O which is pretty filled considering this is an ITX
motherboard. There are 2 USB 3.0 ports, 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 PS/2 port,
DVI port, HDMI, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 6 Channel High-Definition Audio,
Ethernet port, and two gold plated ports for your wireless antennas.
There are two antennas included with this motherboard as well as an
Ethernet port which is great for people that are close enough to the
main router or just like a wired connection.
As noted before this motherboard comes
with an AMD Turion II Neo K625 Processor that is 1.5 GHz stock and a
dual-core. Definitely won’t help you play Battlefield 3 or other graphic
intensive games but will get the job done for your office needs. The
speed of the processor isn’t half bad either when you include the factor
that they have provided it with you already. There are other ITX
motherboards that are the same specs but don’t give a processor with it
so you have to go out of your way to buy one before building the system.
Zotac made it really easy for consumers, when they buy this product
they have one less thing on their mind.
The overall performance of this
motherboard was pretty awesome. This probably won’t appeal to many of
you gamers or computer enthusiasts out there but the features and CPU
included with this product definitely won’t disappoint. We put an SSD
and 4GB of DD3 dual channel on this motherboard and Windows 7 ran pretty
great. The boot time was pretty fast from the SSD but running basic
Windows 7 applications weren’t too slow either. It’s great for your next
small PC build compared to those All-In-One systems that are pretty
pricy. With this motherboard and some other computer components you
could build a pretty good PC for your home office or small business at a
reduced price.
ITX motherboards aren’t really made for
many enthusiasts but they do help people that need it for their
workplace and people who don’t want to spend a lot of money as well. Why
waste money on a big bulky All-In-One system or pre-built computer from
like Frys/BestBuy when all you plan to do with the PC is check email
and use applications like Microsoft Office Suite. You can build one with
the ZOTAC M880G-ITX motherboard and other computer components for much
less than what you will pay for if you were to buy a bigger bulkier one
from other retailers.
The only real flaw I see it in is that
the maximum speed for the memory slot is DD3-800 dual channel. But it is
an ITX motherboard so I can’t expect it to run like Corsair Vengeance
memory sticks. The ZOTAC M880G-ITX motherboard comes into the market at
around $200 dollars and is a great product for consumers that want to
build a PC for their workplace since it will save them money and save
space in the office as well.
source:www.motherboards.org
